Albuquerque police union members say they've been painted in a bad light over an apparently mishandled 911 situation last week.
It all began with a loud party that turned violent. Local residents say they attempted to call 911 dispatchers to alert police to a shooting at the party, but claim they couldn't get through to an operator.
Albuquerque Police Chief Gil Gallegos apologized two days later for the miscommunication, and Mayor Martin J. Chávez responded by adding more operators to the weekend staff. Still, the impression of some people in the community is that the police failed that night.
"Everybody did their job," said Rudy Vigil of the Police Officers Association. "The public was protected as much as we could considering the circumstances and the manning levels. I think it was just something that happened."
In fact, a review of Albuquerque Police Department dispatch logs shows that the first call for help came in at 1:38 a.m., and one minute later an officer was on the scene. By 1:40 a.m., a total of three officers were at the shooting scene and others were chasing the alleged gunmen on Interstate 25.
Vigil sees this situation as a chance to permanently fix manpower problems across the department. "Maybe this is a wake-up call for all of us to quit the bickering and sit down and fix our problems," he said.

ALBURQUERQUE, N.M. —

Albuquerque police union members say they've been painted in a bad light over an apparently mishandled 911 situation last week.

It all began with a loud party that turned violent. Local residents say they attempted to call 911 dispatchers to alert police to a shooting at the party, but claim they couldn't get through to an operator.

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Albuquerque Police Chief Gil Gallegos apologized two days later for the miscommunication, and Mayor Martin J. Chávez responded by adding more operators to the weekend staff. Still, the impression of some people in the community is that the police failed that night.

"Everybody did their job," said Rudy Vigil of the Police Officers Association. "The public was protected as much as we could considering the circumstances and the manning levels. I think it was just something that happened."

In fact, a review of Albuquerque Police Department dispatch logs shows that the first call for help came in at 1:38 a.m., and one minute later an officer was on the scene. By 1:40 a.m., a total of three officers were at the shooting scene and others were chasing the alleged gunmen on Interstate 25.

Vigil sees this situation as a chance to permanently fix manpower problems across the department. "Maybe this is a wake-up call for all of us to quit the bickering and sit down and fix our problems," he said.